US Forex Brokers

Either due to regulatory requirements or other fear of legal repercussions, many forex brokers that are not members of the NFA (National Futures Association) stay away from taking clients from the US. One notable exception, in most cases, are brokers that are instead regulated by the FSA (Financial Services Authority) of the UK. This may or may not work to the advantage of these US clients, because while their choices are somewhat limited, normally the most reputable brokers are still available to them. If you are from the US, the list below should save you some search time, as they will all gladly accept deposits from American forex traders.

FXCM is one of the largest (over $100 million in firm capital) and best known forex brokers in the business. Featuring straight-through processing, multiple trading platforms including the popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4), FXCMs own downloadable FXCM Trading Station or Active Trader, as well as a Java platform that is compatible with Macs. Each platform has its own advantages, depending on your trading style.

The main advantage eToro has over other trading platforms is that it is very easy to use. It may not have all the functionality of some professional platforms, such as conditional order types, automated trading etc. or access to exotic currencies and other instruments, but it is a solid entry-level forex platform. Over and above currencies, eToro also allows traders to take part in the commodity market by trading Gold (XAU/USD) and Silver (XAG/USD), not to mention the exciting new Bitcoin market (BTC/USD). It should also be noted that eToro is a swap-free broker.

IBFX is widely regarded as one of the premier brokers in the retail forex market, and there is a reason for this reputation. Guaranteed fills on stop and limit orders, combined with very low spreads, straight-through order processing (no dealing desk) to multiple liquidity providers, industry-standard MetaTrader 4 (MT4) trading platform

Oanda is a very well respected forex broker among large and small account holders. Oanda is known for being an innovative company that offers traders some unique features such as hourly swap payments and single unit positions sizing - your positions can be as small as 1 unit, which greatly improves traders' ability to apply sound money management rules correctly without having to round down your position sizes. Oanda also offers a great deal of transparency.

GFT Forex offers traders a very high level of service. It is intended for professional traders who demand very high standards. GFT's DealBook 360 platform is very rich in features. It offers traders many different order types which are not available in lesser platforms, such as "one cancels other" (OCO), which allows traders to place several different resting orders, which are canceled when one is executed.

FastBrokers, a subsidiary of Fast Trading Services, LLC, offers simultaneous trading on multiple Forex ECN feeds streaming on a single trading platform through its proprietary ECN2 technology. By developing ECN2 (available on their proprietary platform PathFinder Trader™) FastBrokers gives to its clients tight spreads, ECN style execution, and the opportunity to choose which liquidity provider is offering the better conditions - before placing a trade. PathFinder Trader™ is also a professional trading tool which includes Level 2 (Depth of Market), a professional Charting package, one-click trading from multiple locations including trading from the Charts, and automated trading and back-testing through its own scripting language (PathScript).

IKON Royal offers up the ubiquitous MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform that is well known for its reliability and ease of use, as well as support for the widely used MQL4 programming language, allowing traders to design their own trading algorithms (Expert Advisors). While the platform certainly has its advantages, it does not offer the functionality that some professional level packages do.

FX Club US is a well established and highly regulated (NFA/CFTC) forex dealer located on Wall St. in New York. It has a high level of capitalization that is well above the regulators' requirements. Traders can therefore be fairly certain that their funds are safe on deposit here, which is important for US-based brokers since they have a 2% margin requirement (max. 50:1 leverage*). This means that a large portion of your trading capital does have to be in the broker's account, so safety of funds is a particularly important issue.